A journey homeschooling my youngest now a high schooler...learning, growing, sharing, and making memories on our many musical adventures.

Friday, March 06, 2015

Working Up to St. Patrick's Day...

The past couple weeks have been incredibly busy as my Irish musicians ramp up for St. Patrick's Day. Here's a few of the musical things they have been doing…

Every Monday, if the weather isn't too lousy, we head to Media, PA for an Irish music session at Sligo pub. Two weeks ago, they had some guests at the session…a few members of The Chieftains, Matt Molloy, Tim Edy, and Martin Murray stopped in for some tunes. It was a rousing night and eventually a large number of musicians…word got around.

The next night we went to The Chieftains' concert and Haley, Dylan, and Keegan joined them onstage for the finale.

The Chieftains finale.

Haley with Matt Molloy.

Tim and Dylan talk guitars while Keegan and Haley listen in.

On Friday night, Haley and I went to a concert in West Chester, PA given by Haley's teacher, Brian Conway, John Whelan, Brendan Dolan, and Mary Courtney. We originally planned for Haley to have a fiddle lesson prior to the concert but Friday rush hour traffic spoiled those plans. Brian had Haley join him and Brendan onstage for a set of strathspeys followed by The Mason's Apron then she stayed up for their concert finale.

On Sunday which was full of freezing rain and snow, Haley and Dylan with their Converse Crew counterparts played Irish music for the afternoon at Rockwood Museum in Wilmington, DE for the opening of their Irish castle exhibit. We took a tour of the museum and heard enough ghost stories for them to want to return for a night ghost tour at the museum some evening.

The kids' CD is in post-production, mixing and mastering. John is sending us mixes to listen to each evening and we are in talks with Matt Ferrara, the graphic designer, to decide on cover choices, colors, etc.... They are hoping to have everything ready for a St. Patrick's Day release. It will be tight!